


Family is Better Together

by nancynotruth



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canonical Character Death, Episode Fix-It: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Family Feels, Fix-It, Found Family, Inspirational Speeches, Jack doesn't go off on his own because that's just awful, M/M, Resurrected Castiel (Supernatural), Resurrection, Spoilers for Episode: s15e19 Inherit the Earth, Team Free Will 2.0 (Supernatural), at least he is after Jack is done!, cas is alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:14:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29081469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nancynotruth/pseuds/nancynotruth
Summary: Jack is about to go off into the ether, but Dean's had enough. He's already lost Cas, he's not about to lose Jack too. So he does what any father at the end of his rope would do: he tackles the kid.Later, after all around soppiness, Jack agrees not to leave. Then they realize what Jack's newfound power really means.
Relationships: Castiel & Jack Kline, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Jack Kline & Dean Winchester, Jack Kline & Sam Winchester
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	Family is Better Together

“Don’t you _dare_ ,” Dean growls, launching himself forwards and tackling Jack to the ground (but not before cupping a protective hand around the back of Jack’s head).

“Dean?” Jack asks, wrinkling his eyebrows in the way that reminds Dean so, so much of Cas. “What are you doing?”

“You can’t just leave, kid. You can’t.”

“Yes, I can. I have to.” Jack gently pushes Dean off to the side. Dean knows that Jack could’ve easily blown him two states away.

“You can’t just…just…Jack, the thing that made Chuck a bad god wasn’t that he was too involved with life on Earth,” Sam says, helping Jack to his feet. Dean scrambles upright on his own. “I mean, he wasn’t that involved in all those other realities, and he was just as bad there. Maybe worse.”

Jack tilts his head, eyelids-half open, and Dean feels like he’s been stabbed through the stomach with a rusty nail. He’s seen how much Jack looks like Cas before, but he’s never _noticed_.

“He was a bad god because he wasn’t involved _enough_ ,” Sam continues, all genuine and persuasive. Dean couldn’t think of a speech this good if he had months to prepare. “He only came down here to boost his ego. He wanted love, but he never felt it. He had a sister, but they were never family. We’re family, Jack. We’re _your_ family. And family is better together.”

“Dean doesn’t think so,” Jack says, like he’s just stating a fact. Like he’s just accepted that his—well, that his dad wants him gone. “Dean wishes I were dead.”

“No, I don’t.” Dean really hadn’t been sure if he did or not, but now he knows. This kid is _his_ kid. Cas’ kid.

“You don’t?” Sam looks almost as surprised as Jack, and maybe Dean hadn’t realized just how wrong he was until right now.

“No, I don’t. Come on, kid, we all make mistakes. Yours was, well, killing my mom. Mine was not forgiving you.”

“And you do, now?” Jack asks, so painfully hopeful that it almost breaks Dean’s heart.

“Yeah, Jack. I forgive you. Do you forgive me?” Sam had been a stickler for _open communication_ after Dean had come back from purgatory. Dean had never really bought into it, especially because Sam was definitely hiding something that entire time, but now he’s kind of grateful that he’d listened to just a bit.

“Of course.” Dean hadn’t thought he’d get to see Jack’s half-smile aimed at him again. Yet again, he realizes that on his quest for a young, glorious death he’s somehow become a father. And that his reality is somehow better than anything he’d imagined.

Well.

Almost.

“And you won’t leave?” Dean can see the wheels turning in Sam’s gigantic brain, trying to predict whether Jack will listen to them or whether Sam will have to figure out some kind of God-summoning spell every time he wants Jack to come by for a beer.

“No, I won’t leave. Not if you don’t want me to.”

“Good. Now, c’mere.” Dean grabs Jack in a hug, not even adding a pat on the back to make it less emotional. They’ve just defeated Chuck and saved the damn world. For once, Dean is going to let himself have this.

“You’ll make a good God, Jack.” Dean laugh at his own unintentional pun, and Jack laughs along, even though he probably doesn’t get the joke.

“Yeah,” Sam says, shooting Dean a disapproving glare. “You’ll do a great job.”

“But what will I do when you’re gone?” And just like that, Dean’s good mood is gone. Oh, well. Happiness can only last so long.

“You were about to go off on your own forever, and now you’re worried about us dying?”

  
“Well, yeah. I mean, now that I know I can stay, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Jack has always been too honest for Dean. He wipes a hopefully unobtrusive tear from his eye. “Especially now that Cas—”

“When we die,” Sam interrupts, and Dean shoots him a grateful look. He can’t talk about Cas, not now. Maybe not ever. “And that won’t be for a very long time, okay? But when we die, you can visit us. It doesn’t matter where we end up. You’re omniscient now, right? You’ll be able to drop by for a beer and a chat whenever you want.”

  
“Omniscient.” Jack’s eyes light up, and Dean has the feeling he doesn’t like where this is going. “So I can go to Heaven, and Hell? What about Purgatory? Or…the Empty?”

Dean was wrong. He very much likes where this is going.

“I’m sure you could.” Even with his massive brain, Sam hasn’t caught on yet. He’s doing his own eyebrow-wrinkly thing, the same expression he’s made ever since he was a little kid and couldn’t understand how to fit the keys into the ignition (Dean hadn’t had any other toys for him).

“And Chuck brought my dad—I mean, Lucifer—back from the Empty, right? To fight with Michael?”

“Yeah,” Dean says. _Come on. Come on. Just let us have this one._ “Use those freaky God powers, kid. Bring him back.”

“Shouldn’t we go back to the bunker first?” Sam always thinks about everything so much. Like right now, he’s probably gauging the number of people around them, and just how big a headline a grungy man in an overcoat appearing from thin air would be. But Dean has always been an action kind of man.

  
“No,” he says, clapping a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Do it now.”

  
“I might not be able to.”

“You can.” Jack had said not to pray to him, but Dean is praying harder than he ever has in his life. _Castiel, please._

Jack closes his eyes, and Dean can see the burning gold through his eyelids.

_Please, Cas. Please._

Jack curls his hands into fists, and Sam has to yank Dean away by his shoulders before he’s caught in the rush of power surging up around Jack. Kid really hadn’t been kidding about the whole god thing.

_Breaker breaker, Cas. Come on._

Dean has to look away from the golden glow searing itself into his eyeballs.

_Please._

“Oh my god,” Sam breathes, either not realizing the irony of his word choice or not caring.

“It worked,” Jack says, sounding upsettingly relieved.

Dean turns around.

And there he is.

He’s huddled in a ball on the asphalt, but Dean trusts Jack to keep any cars from running him over. His ratty old overcoat—seriously, does he only have one overcoat? Dean’s never been sure—anyway, Dean hopes he has a spare overcoat laying around the bunker somewhere, because this one is covered in something gooey and black that looks like leviathan guts. And Cas’ hair is more gray than it was when Dean saw him last, and looks like it had recently become the home of several birds.

But Dean doesn’t care.

Not about the gross black gunk, not about the ratty overcoat, not about the messy hair.

Because Cas is here. _Here_.

“Come on,” Sam says, poking him in the ribs. “Go get him.”

Sometimes, Dean wonders exactly how much Sam knows.

But, like many other things (Sam putting a hand on Jack’s arm to keep him back, the cars honking at the newly erected blockade, all the people they’d brought back from the grave standing around), it doesn’t matter right now.

All that matters is that Dean is kneeling next to Cas, and he’s breathing, he’s _breathing._ And Dean wants to punch him in the face for leaving them (leaving _him_ ), and Dean wants to stroke his hair, or kick him in the stomach, or grab him and pat him down to make sure that every single hair on his body was back.

But instead, he puts a hand on Cas’ left shoulder, gripping it like it’s a rope and he’s drowning at sea. He was drowning without Cas.

“No,” Cas moans, so quietly that Dean can barely hear him. “No, please…”

  
“Cas. It’s me.”

“I don’t want to. Please don’t make me. I won’t hurt him.”

“You aren’t hurting anyone.” Dean suddenly realizes that Cas hadn’t just left him, he’d accepted an eternity of torture to save Dean. Because he loved him. Which is honestly more than Dean’s ever expected out of life. “It’s me, Cas. Jack brought you back. You’re alive. You’re here. It’s me.”

He shakes Cas’ shoulder, then again, and again until Cas’ eyes finally open. It’s only been a few days, but Dean’s breath still freezes in his chest at the sight of those eyes.

“Hi, Cas.” Cas smiles a faint, exhausted smile. And not for the first time, Dean realizes just how often he’s stared at those lips.

  
“Hello, Dean.”

They’ve saved the world. His son is the new God. He and Sammy have somehow both survived, and although that’s all he’s wanted, Dean hadn’t really thought it was possible. And his best friend had died after telling Dean that he loved him, and that had been so much worse than the end of the world, but now he’s back with those blue eyes and those lips that Dean can’t stop staring at.

They’ve saved the world.

They have time.

And now, Dean is finally going to do more than stare.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I really hope you liked it. Sorry for the rusty nail bit though lol. 
> 
> Please, let me know what you think! Any line you liked, what you think of the premise/characterization/plot-line, or even a rant about how much the last episode SUCKED. I will love it all. I will also love every single kudos I get!! 
> 
> Stay safe out there. Happy weekend. 💙💙


End file.
